5.  The applicants were born in 1970 and 1973 respectively and live in Pirita.
6.  The present case concerns the circumstances surrounding the killing of the applicants’ 18-year-old son, Vadim Pisari, by a Russian soldier, V.K., at a peacekeeping security checkpoint located on the territory of Moldova following the Transdniestrian armed conflict.
7.  The facts concerning the historical background of the case, including the Transdniestrian armed conflict of 1991-92 and the subsequent events, are set out in Ilaşcu, Ivanţoc, Leşco and Petrov-Popa v. Moldova and Russia ([GC], no. 48787/99, §§ 28-183, ECHR 2004‑VII), and in Catan and Others v. the Republic of Moldova and Russia ([GC], nos. 43370/04, 8252/05 and 18454/06, §§ 8-42, ECHR 2012).
8.  Vadim Pisari lived in Pirita, a village located on the left bank of the Dniester River but controlled by the Moldovan Constitutional Authorities. Early in the morning of 1 January 2012, after an all-night New Year’s Eve party with his friends at which alcoholic drinks were consumed, Vadim Pisari, accompanied by a friend “passenger”, took a car belonging to another friend of theirs for a joy ride. Since the car needed urgent refuelling, they decided to drive to a petrol station located on the right bank of the Dniester River in the town of Vadul lui Vodă. They were stopped at the exit from their village by a police patrol and Vadim Pisari was asked to open the boot of his car. The two young people were then allowed to continue on their way. In order to reach the petrol station they needed to cross a bridge over the Dniester River located approximately one kilometre from their village. Peacekeeping security checkpoints were located at both ends of the bridge (“the left checkpoint” and “the right checkpoint”).
9.  The checkpoints were controlled by peacekeeping military forces belonging to the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova and the self‑proclaimed Republic of Transdniestria. At the time of the events, each checkpoint was manned by eight soldiers of whom four were Russians, two Moldovans and two Transdniestrians. The command of the left checkpoint was ensured by a Russian sergeant, V.K., who was the only one armed with a loaded machine gun at the time of the events. The command of the right checkpoint was also ensured by a Russian sergeant. At each checkpoint concrete blocks and metal barriers were placed on the road in such a way that cars would be forced to slow down in order to pass through them. Each checkpoint had barracks in which the soldiers took turns to rest, and armoured personnel carriers. The distance between the right and the left checkpoints was approximately 600 metres.
10.  Vadim Pisari’s car reached the left checkpoint at approximately 7.10 a.m. Three soldiers, including V.K., were guarding the road. The remaining soldiers were inside the barracks. When passing through the checkpoint, Vadim Pisari not only failed to stop but hit and ran over the “stop” sign and a barrier on which it was located and which was blocking half of the road, with the front right wing of his car. His passenger explained later that the windshield had been partly covered with ice, as the car’s heating system had not been functioning and the driver’s visibility had been poor. V.K. ordered the driver to stop the car, but Vadim Pisari did not obey and continued on his way. V.K. immediately contacted the right checkpoint and asked the Russian sergeant in command to stop the approaching car. However, the car did not stop at the other checkpoint either. According to a soldier from that checkpoint, a special device consisting of several metal bars resembling a World War II Czech “hedgehog” was deployed in the middle of the road in order to stop the car, but the driver simply avoided it and continued on his way. Vadim Pisari’s passenger, however, stated that nobody had attempted to stop the car at the right checkpoint.
11.  Twenty minutes later, at approximately 7.30 a.m., after having refuelled the car, Vadim Pisari and his passenger drove back over the bridge. According to the passenger, initially they had hesitated to go back because of the incident with the stop sign at the left checkpoint. However, they decided to go after Vadim Pisari had assured the passenger that he would solve the problem and that everything would be alright. They passed unhindered through the right checkpoint. A soldier from that checkpoint confirmed later in his statements to the Moldovan police that nobody had attempted to stop the car when it had passed, but that they had immediately informed the left checkpoint about the approach of the car.
12.  In his affidavit to the Moldovan police given on the same day, V.K. submitted that for the purpose of stopping the car, two hedgehogs had been deployed at the entry and exit of the checkpoint. Two other soldiers from the left checkpoint (one Moldovan and one Transdniestrian) submitted on the same day to the Moldovan police that only one hedgehog had been placed on the road. In his statements given to a Russian investigator on 6 January 2012, V.K. submitted that in addition to the two hedgehogs, two spike strips had also been deployed at the entry and exit of the left checkpoint, although they had not been long enough to cover the entire width of the road. Identical statements were made to a Russian investigator by the Transdniestrian soldier mentioned above and by another Russian soldier from the left checkpoint.
13.  When Vadim Pisari approached the left checkpoint in the car, V.K. ordered him to stop. However, he accelerated and avoided the obstacle(s). According to V.K., the car drove towards him and he had to jump away in order to avoid being hit by it. V.K. made the same statement to the Russian investigators on 6 January 2012 but not in his affidavit to the Moldovan police given immediately after the incident. Similarly, the affidavits of the other two soldiers who had witnessed the incident, given immediately after the incident to the Moldovan police, did not mention that V.K. had risked being hit by the car. V.K. then shouted to the car’s driver to stop or he would shoot, and fired one shot in the air. The driver ignored his order and did not stop, but accelerated, so V.K. fired three single shots in the direction of the car, aiming at its tyres. According to V.K., he had no intention of shooting the driver, but was merely trying to stop the car by shooting at its tyres. According to the applicants and to the Moldovan Government, another soldier from the left checkpoint who was close to the car was almost hit by one of V.K.’s bullets, which pierced his coat. Only one bullet appears to have hit the car, which continued for some thirty metres before stopping. The driver’s door opened and Vadim Pisari fell to the ground on his back with his legs remaining inside the car. The passenger got out of the car and was ordered to lie on the ground. V.K. approached Vadim Pisari and saw that he was wounded in the back. He and his colleagues placed a bandage on the wound and called an ambulance, which arrived ten minutes later and took the victim to a hospital in Chisinau. Vadim Pisari died from his wound several hours later.
14.  Shortly after the incident, the Moldovan police arrived and took written affidavits from the soldiers present at the left checkpoint and from one of the soldiers from the right checkpoint. They attempted to take the machine gun with which the victim had been shot, but the Russian military command refused to give it to them.
15.  Shortly thereafter the Moldovan authorities instituted a criminal investigation into the circumstances of Vadim Pisari’s killing. The Russian soldier who had shot the victim was immediately transferred by his military superiors to a military unit in Bryansk, the Russian Federation. The Russian Ministry of External Affairs announced that the Russian authorities would conduct a parallel investigation into the circumstances of the case.
16.  On 2 January 2012 the military commanders of the joint peacekeeping forces from the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova and the so-called Republic of Transdniestria created a commission to investigate the incident of 1 January 2012. The commission was headed by a Russian colonel and comprised three other members from Moldova, the so-called Republic of Transdniestria and Ukraine. An undated report of the commission was presented to the Court by the Russian Government. However, as submitted by the Moldovan Government, it was not signed by the Moldovan member of the commission and therefore had no legal effect. According to the report, Vadim Pisari was responsible for a serious breach of the rules of conduct at checkpoints and for threatening the lives of the soldiers present and of the people in the adjacent localities. At the same time, the report cited as one of the reasons for the incident the lack of appropriate means for stopping vehicles at the checkpoint. As to the responsibility of V.K., the authors of the report stated that they preferred to abstain from reaching any conclusion; however, they provisionally found his actions consistent with the rules concerning the use of firearms.
17.  On 14 January 2012 a senior Russian military officer of the western region, E.S. Kleimenov (cтарший офицер отдела СВ и БВС штаба западного ВО, капитан второго ранга), issued a report concerning the incident of 1 January 2012. The report was provided to the Court by the Russian Government. It stated, inter alia, that V.K. had acted in accordance with the rules applicable in the circumstances when attempting to stop Vadim Pisari, who had represented a threat to the soldiers at the checkpoint. As to the reasons for the incident, the report cited a lack of sufficient equipment at the checkpoint for stopping cars without recourse to lethal force and the fact that the local population had been ill-informed about the rules of conduct at peacekeeping checkpoints.
18.  On 10 January 2012 the Prosecutor General’s Office of Moldova recognised the applicants’ victim status within the criminal proceedings conducted by it. On 22 May 2012, it informed the applicants that it had issued an international search warrant for the Russian soldier suspected of having shot Vadim Pisari.
19.  In the meantime, the Moldovan authorities questioned all the Moldovan soldiers who had been manning the left and right checkpoints at the time of the incident. They also conducted a forensic examination of the scene of the incident, the car driven by the victim, the victim’s body and the bullet extracted from it. According to a forensic report dated 3 January 2012, the concentration of alcohol in Vadim Pisari’s blood had been 0.7%, corresponding to light intoxication. Another medical report dated 4 January 2012 established that the concentration of alcohol in the victim’s body had been 1.13%.
20.  On 9 February 2012 the applicants wrote to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation inquiring about the progress of the investigation conducted by the Russian authorities.
21.  In a letter dated 30 March 2012 the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the western region of the Russian Federation (Прокуратура Западного Военного Округа) informed the applicants, inter alia, that it had initiated an investigation in respect of the offence provided for by Article 109/1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, namely manslaughter. In another letter, the applicants’ lawyer was informed that the suspect would not be extradited to Moldova because Russia could not extradite its own citizens.
22.  The materials of the case file show that the Russian authorities questioned all the Russian soldiers present at both the right and left checkpoints at the time of the incident, as well as two Transdniestrian soldiers. All those questioned made statements similar to those made by V.K. before the Russian investigators (see paragraph 12 above). They stated that they had never experienced a similar incident at a checkpoint. In addition, in the course of the investigation the scene of the incident was examined, an investigative experiment with V.K. was conducted, a ballistic examination was carried out and V.K. was subjected to a psychiatric examination.
23.  On 24 December 2012 the Prosecutor General’s Office of Moldova informed the applicants that they had learnt from the Russian authorities that on 17 May 2012 the soldier suspected of having shot Vadim Pisari had been cleared of the accusations against him and that the proceedings had been terminated on the ground that the evidence had not disclosed the elements of an offence. The Russian authorities also emphasised that, being a Russian citizen, the suspect could not be prosecuted by the authorities of Moldova.
24.  After learning that the Russian authorities had discontinued the criminal proceedings in respect of V.K., the applicants wrote to the Russian Prosecutor’s Office and requested a copy of the decision adopted. They also requested to be recognised as victims in the case and asked how they could challenge the decision concerning the termination of the proceedings.
25.  In March 2013 the applicants received a reply from the Russian authorities informing them that the proceedings had indeed been discontinued on 17 May 2012; however, a copy of that decision could not be sent to the victim’s family because they had not been a party to the proceedings and had no procedural rights therein.
26.  On 8 May 2013 the applicants wrote to the prosecutor at the next level in the Russian Federation requesting that the decision of 17 May 2012 be quashed and that the reopened proceedings be conducted with their involvement.
27.  On 17 September 2013 the Military Prosecutor’s Office of the western region of the Russian Federation wrote to the applicants informing them that their request had been dismissed because they did not have standing to appeal against the decision of 17 May 2012.
28.  On 22 August 2013 the Moldovan Prosecutor’s Office decided to discontinue the investigation into the circumstances of the case in view of the fact that all the investigative measures had been completed and that the suspect had absconded from the Moldovan authorities.
29.  Neither the applicants nor the Moldovan authorities received a copy of the Russian authorities’ decision terminating the criminal proceedings in respect of V.K.